Trump's Bluntness With NATO (And Germany)

**cadillac shark** · 07-11-2018, 11:19 AM

"So we're supposed to protect you against Russia but they're (you're) paying billions of dollars to Russia."

"Germany is totally controlled by Russia."
Donald J. Trump

That's an excerpt from The President's tweet this morning... and he directly verbalized the same sentiment with Stoltenberg and Merkel a few minutes ago. Amazing to hear an American leader finally address Europe that way.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/n...ving-an-impact

"But how can you be together when a country is getting its energy from the person you want protection against or from the group that you want protection?" Trump asked.

"Because we understand that when we stand together, also in dealing with Russia, we are stronger," Stoltenberg said.

"No, you're just making Russia richer," Trump shot back. "You're not dealing with Russia. You're making Russia richer."

**SVPete** · 07-11-2018, 12:02 PM

The oil and gas deal with Russia was done by Gerhard Schroeder, just before Merkel took office. It makes the Germany economy VERY dependent on Russia, and it's not just Germany that is vulnerable to Russian energy-arm-twisting. Arm-twisting like this.

On the military side, maybe Trump had this in mind:

http://nationalinterest.org/blog/buz...ow-death-25157

The German magazine Spiegel recently revealed that most of the Luftwaffe’s—the modern German air force’s—128 Eurofighter Typhoons are not flightworthy.

In fact, only about ten of the aircraft are ready for operations, Spiegel said. This raises doubts about Germany’s ability to meet its NATO defense commitments.

And maybe this:

In October, reports emerged that not a single German military submarine was operational — at a time when Russian submarine operations in the Baltic Sea were raising new concerns. Bundeswehr pilots are using choppers owned by a private automobile club to practice because so many of their own helicopters are in need of repair. And about half of all Leopard 2s — the tank which is most common in the Bundeswehr — were out of order as recently as November, which left the country with only 95 tanks of that type. By comparison, Russia is believed to have over 20,000 combat tanks, even though it is not known how many of them are operational.

Not that the UK and French military are paragons of readiness.

**Dlr Pyro** · 07-11-2018, 01:44 PM

sounds like there is some collusion going on between schroeder, merkel and Russia...

**SaintLouieWoman** · 07-11-2018, 07:27 PM

Trump is right on this one. I'm sure the Euro-wienies will complain. One of my relatives said "Everyone I know thinks Brexit is horrible". Most of the people I know support Brexit and think NATO countries had better start living up to their responsibilities. Doubtfully most Americans don't like footing the bill for Europe's defense, especially since they look down their collective noses at us. Go Trump!